Hypervisors use various file-based structures to store virtual machine information for, but not limited to, configuration, memory content, and virtual disk content. These file based structures must be transformed in order to be compatible with a hypervisor of a different type.
Existing tools that convert virtual machine files are both migration and transformation tools, namely they encompass both migration (copying) of the data, and transformation of the entirety of the virtual machine file.
Data migration is what consumes most of the time in this type of operation. Eliminating it could for example change an hour long operation into mere seconds. This would be of particular benefit in the conversion of virtual disks.
Virtual disks are a type of file used by hypervisors to simulate a direct-attached hard drive on a virtual machine. Virtual disks are typically extremely large, on the order of many gigabytes (GB), or even terabytes (TB) of data. The tools that exist today to migrate virtual disks from one hypervisor format to another must make a copy of the data stored within the source virtual disk file, in order to store the data in another virtual disk file that is compatible with the destination hypervisor. Copying many gigabytes, or even terabytes of data is highly inefficient.
Thus, there is need for a more efficient system for converting a virtual machine file in one hypervisor format to a virtual machine file in another hypervisor format.